GUEST COLUMN: Coronavirus accelerates need for healthy buildings

Do you know that we spend 90% of our lives indoors? Dr. Joseph Allen, assistant professor at Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health, recently shared this fact on a webinar focused on “The 9 Foundations of a Healthy Building,” a book he co-authored with John Macomber, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School.

In other words, by the time a person reaches the age of 80, that person will have spent 72 years of their life indoors. That’s a very sobering statistic. This means that the architects, engineers, contractors and other professionals who design, build and maintain our buildings have a major impact on our health.

Our indoor life has come front and center during the COVID-19 virus pandemic. The healthy building movement has changed the way owners and facility managers evaluate their buildings, but the coronavirus pandemic will now change that even more. Sometime in the next couple months or possibly longer, people will be returning to their office buildings and other indoor places and that brings new concerns about safety and sanitizing.

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The healthy building trend will accelerate and deepen as people return to buildings that they hope are safe and healthy. Facility managers must play a vital role by updating the way they evaluate their buildings — including enacting additional health safety measures and sharing information with tenants and employees because the most important asset of any business is the humans that occupy their buildings.

Facility managers need to commit to a very thoughtful approach to the well-being of the building occupants and their concerns. Now is a great time to update and upgrade building evaluations to make sure facilities are not just operating efficiently, but also helping people feel safe, welcome and healthy, especially as they return to work. The COVID-19 virus has heightened people’s expectations of how well their buildings are performing from a health standpoint.

WELL building standards focus on the health and well-being of building occupants. Several main target areas that will need more devoted and focused attention include the following.

Operations of HVAC systems will probably be top-of-mind as people return to their office buildings once the coronavirus crisis eases. Indoor air quality has major effects on people’s productivity, alertness and absenteeism. A regular cleaning and replacement strategy for all systems and filters, along with evaluation of the outdoor air intake, will help to ensure optimal air quality.

Cleaning schedules and proper training will also be top-of-mind for returning employees. A transition to cleaning products with safer ingredients may occur since most commercial cleaners contain harmful chemicals that can be hazardous to the cleaning staff as well as other building occupants.

The quality of drinking water is also very important. Companies have been encouraging the use of reusable water bottles, bottle filling stations and ice/water dispensers. Regular cleaning and filter maintenance of this equipment are needed to ensure that drinking water is of the highest quality.

Smoking bans are another essential feature. The Center for Disease Control states that smoking restrictions in buildings have helped to improve the health of people in America. More and more companies have enacted full smoking bans for all their buildings and campuses.

An integrated pest management approach will help balance monitoring, prevention and control efforts to limit harmful effects on people. More importance and attention also will be given to the use of less hazardous chemicals.

The WELL Building Core & Shell certification is an approach that might be particularly useful to some facility teams. The program emphasizes building design and operation. Building commissioning for existing buildings and newly constructed buildings will help ensure better outcomes for a healthy building since it includes measuring and monitoring building performance.

Preparing the workplace for tenants and employees to return to a building that they believe is “healthy” is very essential to mental health and building trust. Best practices such as hand washing, cleaning protocols, and air quality commitments will be extremely important. The building owner and facility manager must share what is being done to promote health in a way that increases trust with the building occupants.

Post pandemic communications will become even more important than before the virus arrived. People need to be educated about the health and well-being strategies that are being enacted and how these measures contribute to a more efficient and healthier workplace for them. Communications that explain the efforts to safeguard people’s security and health safety hopefully will inspire confidence and peace of mind.

Communications must reassure people by keeping them informed and engaged through emails, text messages and various types of signage. FAQs can also be an effective way for building occupants to have their questions and concerns addressed. Communications efforts should be transparent, fact-based, honest and used to explain what is being done and why. The communications

This is a defining moment in a time of uncertainty due to COVID-19. NOW is the time for innovation and investment to achieve healthy buildings! John Macomber says: As the country begins to return to work, concerns about the spread of infectious disease will “make it easier than ever to invest in the basics of a healthy building, notably around ventilation, air quality, water, moisture and security.” We hope this is true!

Glenn Ebersole, Professional Engineer, is the business development manager at CVM and CVMNEXT Construction in King of Prussia. He can be reached at gebersole@cvmnext.com or 610-964-2800 ext. 155.